DEC 11, 2016 — JAN 24, 2017

Viva Las Vegas!

Conveniently, the route from Flagstaff went straight past old Hoover Dam, so we thought we’d stop on in for a wander as we passed through.

Driving over the largest concrete arch bridge in the world at the dam was fairly uneventful, you couldn’t see anything out the windows as the bridge curb was so high! There’s probably a reason for that – imagine the accidents that could happen as the views distract drivers…

We pulled over at the bridge memorial walk, where you can walk on the dam-side of the bridge – it’s quite a view, as the below pics show, and then drove around to the dam, parking up on the Arizona side (the dam is bisected by the Arizona-Nevada state line, making it 1 hour earlier on the Nevada side!)

After that we headed into Sin City, our first stop was the infamous Palms resort and casino. The old smell of cigarette smoke filled the expanse. We weren’t there to gamble, but in fact to get Hooters shirts for Sara’s sisters – their request, I assure you!

We had a quick beer there and sampled the chicken, not bad actually.

We checked into our hotel and then went to one of the local bars for a drink before uber-ing to a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant for a *healthy* dinner – we thoroughly enjoyed the shrimp, chicken and steak, combined with fried rice, teppan veges and miso! Yum!

We wandered up The Strip towards our hotel, which was A LOT further than it looks on the map, and marveled at the lights (as well as all of the people drinking giant slushies on the street – we were there on a Friday night after all… obviously it didn’t take us too long to join in!)

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The next day it was golf time! Well, sort of. In the states there’s this amazing driving range chain called Top Golf. For $5 you become a “member”, and rent bay time, while a waitress brings you cocktails.

The balls contain RFID chips, and the range contains giant buckets. There are a heap of games you can play where you score points for hitting the ball into particular buckets. It’s a great way to work on your game, I’d love to see one in NZ! (Even if it is a little pricey)

For lunch on the Saturday we hit up a Wahlburger, and were genuinely impressed with Mark’s brother’s venture.

After lunch, we took a cruise out to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign, and joined the line (briefly, before we decided to just go on the side) to get a photo with it. There were ‘entertainers’ dressed as Elvis looking for tips to be in people’s pictures – it was quite funny to watch!

That evening we went to the Cosmopolitan, home of the Chandelier bar. A bar (three levels) inside a chandelier (of sorts). Fairly crazy cocktails were consumed! For dinner, we headed up to the Scarpetta restaurant, a very fancy Italian spot where I enjoyed a duck and fois gras ravioli – talk about rich! – and Sara enjoyed a braised short-rib pasta.

Here’s a slideshow of photos from the rest of our time in Vegas:

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Some takeaway drinks (and the other Bellagio fountain show) later and we were on the monorail back to our hotel, where I blew a few dollars on the pokies, and retired for the night, for our big drive through Death Valley to LA.

P.S. as you may have noticed, our trip has now reached its conclusion (in real time), but there will be more posts once we are back in NZ and have recharged the batteries!